Detroit Lions hit rock bottom, but it’s not time to quit

With the new season already seeming like a doomed experiment, the Detroit Lions look to build on any glimpses of hope. Sunday’s near-miracle at least had that.

With about ten minutes left in Sunday’s game between the Detroit Lions and the San Francisco 49ers in Week Two, I was mentally preparing for this recap to be a lot more mean-spirited. Don’t get me wrong, I’m hardly feeling like Mr. Rogers here either. The 30-27 loss at San Francisco serves as further evidence that the front office may have made a rather large mistake.

I have a strong suspicion that another embarrassment at Ford Field on national television is in store next time they take the field. Even so, there is at least a Honolulu blue and silver lining from the team’s furious comeback attempt over the final ten minutes. They didn’t quit.

I know; at this level, that’s not really something that deserves even the slightest bit of credit. They’re getting paid millions of dollars to not quit, after all. Plus, giving your best effort when there are people depending on you is pretty much the absolute bare minimum standard of living in general, let alone playing in the NFL. Still…

Admit it, you thought they were going to quit when it was 30-13 in the 4th quarter, and the offense was facing 3rd and a kilometer from deep in their own end. And it sure looked like they quit during the second half of the season-opener against the Jets last Monday night.

And Vontae Davis literally quit during halftime of the Bills game on Sunday. So what the heck, I’ll give the Lions a mild degree of credit for not quitting.

The comeback was fun while it lasted. Stafford finally woke up a little bit and displayed why this offense has such a high ceiling. The defense somehow got six sacks and even stepped up to grab a clutch interception that seemed a little too good to be true (and was).

At the end of the day, the Lions are sitting right where they deserve to be, which is the near-certainty of a 0-3 start (check the schedule if you’re not sure why). But at least they didn’t quit.

Other takeaways from Week 2

Kenny Golladay looks awesome. ‘Babytron’ followed up his first career 100-yard game with six catches for 89 yards, plus an impressive twisting reach for the goal line in the first half. Golladay has been the best player on the team so far (which isn’t saying much, but he’s legitimately played great).

LeGarrette Blount is on his way towards being one of the worst free agent signings in NFL history. Blount was the big name free agent that Detroit picked up to finally boost the running game. After rushing for negative three yards against the Jets, Blount managed to get thrown out of the game on a play where he wasn’t even on the field. This would actually be pretty funny if it wasn’t so…you know what, I surrender. It’s pretty funny.

Matthew Stafford/Golden Tate connection looks off. A quick glance at the box score doesn’t show this. Tate has 14 catches and 188 yards receiving through two games. The frustrating thing is the number of incompletions being thrown his way. Tate has those 14 grabs, but this is off of 28 total attempts in his direction. Stafford’s accuracy in general looks a little bit off and a 50% completion rate to his best receiver isn’t a recipe for success.

For a small comparison point, Stafford already has half as many incomplete passes to Tate after two games as he did for the entire 2017 season (Tate had 92 catches on 120 targets).

Happy Birthday

I received an interesting birthday card in the mail last week. It had a futuristic looking Lions logo on the front of it, with the following greeting:

"May your birthday be as wonderful as the day that the Lions win the Super Bowl, sometime in the future, with a win over some team from London or Mexico City, probably when real Lions are extinct and people are living on Mars. You will probably be dead by then. But regardless, I hope your day is THAT good!"

A happy birthday indeed. Until that day comes, I’ll have to settle for the Lions not quitting. And until that day comes, neither will I.